Curtis Banks, one of the UK’s leading independent SIPP providers, has renewed its partnership with the Intergenerational Foundation, the research and education charity whose mission is to promote intergenerational fairness and protect the interests of younger and future generations across all areas of policy.
With the challenges of an ageing population, increases in inflation, housing and energy costs, university fees as well as bearing the brunt of paying for the COVID-19 pandemic and long term impacts of current behaviour on the environment, young people are increasingly overburdened by previous generations’ debts while falling further behind older generations when it comes to earning or saving for the future. Among young people with pensions, median pension wealth has fallen by approximately a quarter over the decade. Meanwhile, just 6% of self-employed young people aged 25-34* participate in a pension scheme at all.
Through the partnership, the Intergenerational Foundation and Curtis Banks aim to raise the profile of these rising inequalities and work with policy makers to ensure fairness between generations.
Melissa Dean, Head of Client Relationships, Curtis Banks commented: “Curtis Banks is proud to partner with the Intergenerational Foundation for the second year running, and support the excellent work that it undertakes to protect the interests of younger and future generations. Our young generations are finding it more and more difficult to save for the short term, let alone long term goals as the impact of COVID, the current cost of living crisis and the increase in inflation impacts. When people struggle financially, long term saving isn’t seen as a priority and that is understandable. But the effect this can have on retirement plans is worrying.
“To ensure younger generations can save for the long term, we believe policy makers need to address a number of issues and look at how they can help rebalance intergenerational fairness. One consideration is to review the accessibility of accrued pension wealth held by older generations and incentivise access to sharing these savings with younger generations. This may help reduce some of the financial burdens younger people are currently facing and allow them to not just survive but thrive in the future. But to do this, it would be important for the older generations to seek financial advice and for a clear family plan to be drawn up.”
Alec Haglund, Report author, added: “With young people having to use so much income on day-to-day essentials, they simply do not have that “little extra” to put to one side for the future. The country is storing up a retirement timebomb for younger generations unless they too have the ability to save today for their futures tomorrow. As we look to protect the interests of younger and future generations, we are very grateful for the continued support of Curtis Banks.”
A copy of the report is available here: The Savings Squeeze: Young people locked out from the benefits of saving
*Source ONS Family Resources Survey 2020/21 – Pensions Participation
